This invention is directed to a shackle protector for protection of a padlock shackle when the padlock is utilized to lock a hasp or other similar type hardware which utilizes an eye or the like on which the padlock locks.
Hasps are highly utilitarian structures for connecting and locking two elements together such as locking a gate, a door, a cupboard, a drawer or the like. The common hasp has two main parts. The first part constitutes the latch portion. It is made up of a hinge plate which is hinged to a flap. The hinge plate has appropriate openings in it allowing it to be attached to a structure via screws, bolts or the like. The flap includes a slot.
The second portion of the common hasp is an "eye." This is sometimes referred to as a swivel or a staple. For the purposes of this specification it will be referred to as an eye. The eye includes an eye plate which also has appropriate openings for attachment of this plate to the other portion of the structure which is to be secured via the hasp.
The hinge portion is located with respect to the flap such that the flap folds over the screw heads or the like which are utilized to connect the components to a structure. The slot fits over the eye with the eye protruding through the slot. When the slot fits over the eye the flap also covers the screw heads or the like which are utilized to connect the eye plate. The shackle of a padlock can then be passed through the eye and the padlock locked. This fixes the flap to the eye such that the two components to which the hasp is attached are locked together.
In a modification of the above structure, the eye is constructed as a swivel allowing it to be rotated on the eye plate or swivel plate. It is lined up with the slot when the flap is first attached to the eye and then it is rotated 90.degree. and thus serves as a latch to hold the flap to the eye. A lock then can be passed through the swivel to lock the structure.
When locked with a padlock, in both of the above embodiments of common hasps, an unauthorized person cannot remove the hasp from the structure which it is attached to because the flap covers the screw heads or bolt heads utilized to attach both the latch and the eye to the structure. However, the shackle of a padlock used to lock the hasp is exposed and an unauthorized person can use a pair of bolt cutters and simply snip the padlock shackle. This allows for easy removal of the padlock from the hasp followed by opening of the hasp to gain access to the structure which was being secured with the hasp and padlock.
In order to increase the security of a hasp, measures have been taken to better conceal the screw heads, bolt heads or the like utilized to connect the components of the hasp to a structure. Further, the components of the hasp have been case hardened such that they cannot be bent or pried loose from the structure on which the hasp is attached. While both of these expedients certainly help to better secure the hasp to the structure, they still leave the combination of the hasp and padlock exposed to the use of bolt cutters to sever the padlock shackle. Thus, irrespective of whatever expedients were taken to strengthen the hasp or the mounting of a hasp to the structure the combination of the hasp and padlock heretofore was always susceptible to unauthorized entry into the structure because of the exposure of the padlock shackle.